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Minions
The Issue With over two hundred games played in Dragons Gate we've noticed certain patterns. One of those has to do with minions. Specifically, if played well they are too powerful because they break the action economy and often have a large number of attacks. If not played well they become a huge drag on game pace and lower enjoyment for all. The issue with number of attacks has been address with our rule on multiple attacks but that still leaves the issues of action economy and pacing. On the other hand, companions can be a super cool aspect of characters and so we don't want to ban them. Instead, we've put a limit on how many minions may be active at any point in time. Also, we don't like at druids are considered sub-optimal if they choose anything other than a cat or a couple dinosaurs. We've made sweeping changes to animal companions to bring most of them up a tier. Our intent is NOT to raise anything above the cat as that is already probably too powerful. There will undoubtedly be corner cases we missed. These will be adjusted as they come up. Minions * Defined as summons, Eidolons, Animal Companions, Animated Dead, Animated Objects, Constructs, Familiars with wands/scrolls/etc, and any other creature, being, entity, or object that acts independently and therefore breaks action economy. * Familiars that are not participating in combat (in a bag, on their master's shoulder, etc.) are not counted as minions for the sake of this ruling. * The Minion Cap is as follows at each ECL (Effective Character Level) - ** At ECL 1, a player may only have 1 Permanent or summoned minion at a time. ** At ECL 5, a player may have 1 Permanent minion, or 2 summoned minions. ** At ECL 10, a player may have 1 Permanent and 1 Summoned, or 3 summoned minions. ** At ECL 15, a player may have 1 Permanent and 2 Summons, or 4 summoned minions. ** At ECl 20, the minion cap no longer applies. Adventurers at this pinnacle of power have more than enough energy to maintain nigh infinite amount of minions. Eidolons * Now follow the rules for unchained eidolons. Animal Companions * Animal companions all receive a size increase to large at level 7 if they don't currently get it. In most cases this includes the stat changes of +8 str, -2 dex, and +4 con but their are exceptions * Exceptions ** Bear ** Badger ** Crocodile ** Deinonychus ** Panda * For Bear, Badger, Crocodile, Panda, Spinosaurus*, the level 7 increase to large changes stats by +4 str, -2 dex, +2 con. * Deinonychus breaks the established pattern of medium bump at leve 4 and large bump at level 7 and so requires a bit more tweaking. The Deinonychus will get its medium bump at 4 instead of the normal level 7. However, it will not receive the pounce ability until L7. It will also get a large bump at L7, but at the modified stat increase of +4 str, -2 dex, +2 con. * As per the normal rules, a player may choose to forgo this bonus size increase and instead receive a straight +2 str and +2 con. * In general, Dinosaurs only exist on a small isolated island accessible through a sealed portal. Only characters with special access tokens can take dinosaurs as animal companions, familiars, or other special companions. * Animals companions who are small (at level 7) do not get this size bump. NOTE (*) - The Spinosaurus already gets a large bump at level 7 so this is just a straight nerf to its published stat block.